Sesame Workshop Names Ming COO

Gary E. Knell, president and ceo of Sesame Workshop, has named Melvin Ming chief operating officer.

In the position, Ming will serve an aggressive content creation agenda and work at improving the long and short-term finances for the non-profit educational organization.

Promoted from the post of cfo, Ming is responsible for day-to-day supervision of the company’s activities and operations. Reporting to him are Karen Gruenberg (exec. vp, creative development, production and corporate sales), Sherrie Rollins Westin (exec. vp, corporate affairs, corporate marketing, education and development), Dan Victor (exec. vp and general counsel, legal and business affairs) and Liz Kalodner (exec. vp, global products and international television distribution).

Ming joined the Workshop in 1999 as exec. vp, finance and administration. Prior to that, he was cfo, treasurer and vp of administration and operations at the Museum of Television and Radio. Ming also served as exec. vp and coo at WQED (Pittsburgh) and vp, cfo and chief administrative officer at Thirteen/WNET in New York.

A search is currently underway for a new cfo, who will report to the office of the president, and be supervised day-to-day by Ming.

Founded in 1968, Sesame Workshop is behind award-winning programs like Dragon Tales and Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat and ground breaking multi-media productions in South Africa, Egypt and Russia.